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Hi! My name is Augusto Sperb Machado. I work as a Graduate Assistant in Political Theory and the History of Political Ideas at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), in Switzerland.

My research interests revolve around normative political philosophy, history of contemporary political ideas, and analytical jurisprudence. Right now, I am preparing a Ph.D. thesis on the difficult relationship between luck egalitarianism, G. A. Cohen's conservatism, and public policy. Many of my past works focused on the moral foundations of the rule of law.

As a PhD candidate, I pursue a double degree in Public Administration (at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, IDHEAP, Lausanne) and in Law, Politics, and Philosophy (at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, EHESS, Paris). Previously,  as an Eiffel Excellence Scholar, I obtained a Master's research degree in Politics at the EHESS. I also hold a Bachelor of Laws and a Master's degree in Philosophy, both at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where I was born and raised.

On this website, you will find my academic work here and my curriculum vitae here. There is also some personal stuff here (old pics, facts about me, etc.).

You can always reach me by e-mail at augusto@machados.org.

academic background


Dissertation's provisional title: Conservatism and Luck Egalitarianism: Accepting the Given vs. Neutralizing Luck in Social Justice and Public Policy [in English]


Master's thesis: Egalitarianism between Institutions and Ethoses: A Study on the Site of Social Justice in John Rawls and Gerald Cohen  [in French]


Master's thesis: Rule of Law and Freedom as Non-domination: Sketch of a Neo-republican Conception of Legality [in Portuguese]


Undergraduate thesis: From the Germ of Justice Thesis to the Rule-of-Law Ideal: A Study on the Value of Proceeding by Rule in H. L. A. Hart’s work [in Portuguese]

recent publications

Quelle société pour quelle justice ? L’argument de la manne tombée du ciel chez Nozick, Cohen et Rawls [article]

Les Études philosophiques 145, 2023, p. 109-131.

O Estado de Direito e a liberdade como não dominação: esboço de uma concepção neorrepublicana da legalidade [book]

Porto Alegre: Seminário de Filosofia do Direito - UFRGS, 2020. xiv + 203 p.